5297 Independence Avenue

also 650 West 254th Street | Riverdale | built 1960

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1952
The northern part of the Foster villa's lot is sold off, creating this building lot
In 1952 the northern portion of the Independence Avenue lot that held the old Charles W. Foster villa was sold to Henry L. Sonnenberg, making a sixth lot out of the former estate. Sonnenberg sold it in 1959 to Leonard Hankin, who built a house on it in 1960.
“A sixth lot was created in 1952 when the northern portion of the Independence Avenue lot was sold to Henry L. Sonnenberg.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1960
William Schoen designs a neo-Georgian house for Leonard J. Hankin
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William Schoen designed this neo-Georgian house for Leonard J. Hankin in 1960. It is a wood-frame building with a brick veneer and a flat roof, two stories tall on the Independence Avenue side and three at the back, where the ground slopes away, with an attached one-story garage at the south. A semicircular drive lined on its northern curve by a brick cheek wall keeps up a tradition of the estate houses.
“…this house was designed by William Schoen for Leonard J. Hankin in 1960…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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